Ashen Sentinels - my Primaris Space Marine army

[firestorm40k]

Greetings Frater  I'm starting a new army - over the last few years I've amassed quite a few Primaris units, and have eventually decided to paint them as an original Ultima Founding Chapter - which I have dubbed the Ashen Sentinels. The colour scheme I'm going for is grey armour with red helmets. 

 

I've started painting two squads of Assault Intercessors, one of which is my vow for Call to Arms. Here they are after their base coat - to thin layers of Dawnstone paint; I'd say 40% water, that's how much I thinned the paint! 

 

 

I then gave them a wash of a custom mixed shade - 4 parts Lahmian Medium, 1 part Nuln Oil and 1 part Agrax Earthshade:

 

I'm now starting to panel line them, using Nuln Oil:

 

If you want to read more about this project, like their background, or more details about how I'm painting them, I've started a Blog here: Ashen Sentinels Blog. 

 

I'll post more pics soon, thanks for looking! 

[Wormwoods]

Always happy to see a custom chapter! Eager to see how the intercessors look once you're done.

[Castlerook]

A new army from Firestorm? Sweet! Looking forward to seeing how this pans out.

[Master Toddius]

I think you have a good start. I've always found grey paint jobs very challenging. Grey paint looks much different wet than dry. So its next to impossible to wet blend gradients. I think layering with a careful understanding of what the finished shade will look like dried is the only real way, other than using an airbrush. Good luck, man. Looking forward to the result. 

[firestorm40k]

9 hours ago, Master Toddius said:

Grey paint looks much different wet than dry. So its next to impossible to wet blend gradients. I think layering with a careful understanding of what the finished shade will look like dried is the only real way, other than using an airbrush.

Thanks all for your kind comments!  I agree with what you say about painting grey @Master Toddius - I've been testing to find the best approach before settling on the method I'm using. Below is a pic of two of my tester Marines - on the left is the first attempt, still using two thinned coats as the base, but with some Nuln Oil shading. I realised that a wash with some brown in might be worth trying, as I noticed that 'Eavy Metal Marines in grey usually have a brown colour as part of the recess shading. On the right is my first attempt using the wash mix, I was very pleased with the result (this marine us slightly darker than the others as I was still nailing down how much I needed to thin the Dawnstone!).

 

After the panel lining is done on the actual squads, I'll be doing highlights - a mix of drybrushing and direct painting. But first I've got to do the panel lining - 1 squad down, on to the next..! 

[Firedrake Cordova]

The one on the right definitely looks better  

[sugar-free]

I think the armor is looking really good. Waiting for that red to “pop”

[firestorm40k]

Thanks for your comments  I've been working my way through the panel-lining, which - as expected  - took a few days. But now that's done, the next stage is to highlight the armour; the first step of this is a very light drybrush with Administratum Grey, I'd did this on both squads yesterday evening. 

 

I think this just helps blend the highlights when they're painted in. Later today I'll start these - which will definitely take me several days to do..! I'll post some more pics on the other side of doing that 

[Master Toddius]

After seeing grey paint jobs from 'eavy metal team in the past -- what my friends and I realized is that in some cases they're actually mixing grey with brown. The result is pretty unique and makes for an alternate darker tone in areas that would be darker if you're using an overhead light source method of highlighting/shading. Its absolutely worth the time to test with some different shades of grey mixed w/ brown.

 

Edited July 17, 2023 by Master Toddius

[firestorm40k]

This week I am doing highlights - two done so far (well, the first pass - I'll do another pass with a lighter paint to accent corners etc) - not the best pics, but you get the idea:

 

 

I can only cope with doing one of these during my evening painting time  so that's my plans for the rest of this week and next sorted out..! 

[Pearson73]

That grey looks ace with the highlights to lighten it up a bit. The red helmets complement it really well too, what colour are you thinking for the eye lenses?

[firestorm40k]

Thank you @Pearson73 - I think I'll do the lenses green/yellow, looking at other red helmed Space Marines (e.g. Blood Angels), that's the colour their lenses are usually painted. I might even be brave and have a go at giving them a glow effect 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Personally, I'd suggest green over yellow, purely because yellow is a finnicky colour, and it's probably easier to get an appearance of depth on green than it is in yellow over that small area.  

[Pearson73]

Indeed, I reckon green will look great and probably be a tad easier to do. 

[firestorm40k]

Thank you both - yes, I mean green with yellow highlights for the lenses (or green wash over light yellow base) 

[firestorm40k]

Update time - first layer of highlighting (Administratum Grey) done on the first squad - tonight I've started the second layer, which is 50/50 mix of Administratum Grey and Corax White. First two are done:

 

I'll continue with the rest of the squad, then start highlighting the second. I was hoping to be able to do another squad as a vow for Call To Arms, but at this rate, finishing just the one is going to be tight..! 

[Torbenos]

I'll echo what has been said. The grey looks good, and what could be better seeing as they'll mostly be that! Just the details to bring home. Do you intend to follow the usual Codex Astartes organisation and if so what accent/company will they be? Also who are they successors of?

[firestorm40k]

9 hours ago, Torbenos said:

Do you intend to follow the usual Codex Astartes organisation and if so what accent/company will they be? Also who are they successors of?

Thank you @Torbenos  They're technically Imperial Fists successors, as their geneseed is from that lineage; however, they were intended as reinforcements for another Chapter that was destroyed - rather than rebuild this Chapter, it was decided they would forge a new one. By and large they'll be Codex adherent; these squads I'm working on are part of a Boarding Patrol, I'll paint them to be part of the 4th Company (so likely green shoulder trims). I'll put more details about their background etc. in my Blog if you're interested 

[firestorm40k]

So here's the first squad with armour highlights done:

 

I was originally going to go straight into highlighting the second squad I'd base coated after doing the first, but I've decided that (seeing as these are my Call To Arms vow) I better carry on with this squad. 

 

To that end, next I'll be doing the body suit under the armour - inner elbows and behind knees, etc. As a first test, on one of my tester Marines, I did straight Basilicanum Grey and Black Legion Contrast paints over the grey basecoat. The first was barely noticeable, but the Black looked better. 

 

Next experiment: I lay down a coat of The Fang, then tried the same Contrast paints - this time, the Black was too dark, but I think Basilicanum Grey looks better. So that's the approach I'll use going forward:

 

And the final, least exciting but if any update ever  - I started painting the squad's backpacks, with a base coat of Dawnstone:

[Rusted Boltgun]

I do like your scheme, the grey tones really suit the armour (and the Ashen chapter name) and the brighter aquila and helms will make them 'pop' on the tabletop.

 

Are those two different leather colours or is my phone playing tricks?

[firestorm40k]

8 hours ago, Rusted Boltgun said:

Are those two different leather colours or is my phone playing tricks?

Thanks @Rusted Boltgun  If you mean the pouches on the one-armed Assault Intercessor  I've used those to test how I'm going to paint the leather on these - it's one base coat (Screamer Pink), but one side has got Basilicanum Grey over it, the other (the holster) just has Nuln Oil.

[Firedrake Cordova]

They're coming along nicely.  

 

Putting Basilicanum Grey over The Fang really does look rather good  

[firestorm40k]

14 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

Putting Basilicanum Grey over The Fang really does look rather good

Thanks, I think so  the challenge was to get a tone that didn't clash with the grey of the armour, or wasn't lost in it - the blue tint of The Fang is just right for that after a coat of the Contrast 

 

Tonight I've been testing lenses; my idea was a three stage process: firstly, White Scar is the foundation for the next to colours, then Flash Gitz Yellow, then a finals hade of thinned Vallejo Green Game Ink.

 

Here are three tests - the first had un-thinned White Scar:

 

The second I thinned the White Scar, aiming to attempt a glowing effect by going a little outside the eye area - it didn't really work:

 

Finally, thinned White Scar (not going outside the eye area) worked best, I think:

 

Certainly, that's looking closest to what I want. With a couple of dots to highlight, I think that'll do 

[firestorm40k]

I've been busy, so it's a day or two later than I'd hoped, but I've 'done' the undersuits for the first squad - by that I mean I've base coated with The Fang and washed with Basilicanum Grey. Not that you can really tell from this picture 

 

A better look at the Sergeant:

 

My next dilemma is whether or not I need to highlight the ridges of the undersuit  I think I'll try it on one of my tester Marines, and see whether it'll work or not. That's tomorrow evening's work sorted out! 

Edited August 3, 2023 by firestorm40k
Typo

[firestorm40k]

I did a quick test of highlighting the undersuit ridges on one of the, uh, test Marines  and I thought it looked ok:

 

So I carried on and did the squad! 

 

So I'm thinking next I'll do the holsters and pouches... Then weapons and helmets - oh, and Backpacks in between  - but this squad feels like it's progressing well, and in reasonable time